U.S. military still failing on sexual assault (Other Views)

The escalating number of sexual assaults in the military bespeak a crisis that has been in the making for decades.

It's shameful that the Pentagon has not effectively dealt with the issue, and there's little reason to believe that will change without dramatic reform in the way sex assaults are reported and investigated.

Even if some of the increase is attributable to a greater willingness to report unwanted sexual conduct, 26,000 incidents in 2012 is an epidemic no matter how you slice it.

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that these alrming problems extend to military recruiters. There have been hundreds of incidents of sexual misconduct in the past five years among these personnel, including a number involving female teens being recruited at high schools.

Roughly coinciding with the release of these shocking numbers was the revelation of an incident that seemed to perfectly illustrate what ails the military.

A lieutenant colonel, who until May 6 had been chief of the Air Force's sex assault and prevention branch, was arrested and accused of groping a woman while drunk. This allegedly happened in a strip club parking lot a mile from the Pentagon.

These developments have added urgency to the sex assault issue. The president vowed his administration would "exponentially step up" its game to deal with the issue.

The problem is, we've been here before. Remember the Air Force Academy rape scandal in the early 2000s? Or Tailhook, the 1991 debacle in which naval and marine aviators sexually abused female officers at a Las Vegas convention?

Nearly 20 years ago, Tailhook showed how sexual misconduct allegations were at risk of being whitewashed when addressed through the normal chain of command. Stunningly, that situation still is cited as one of the major reasons why victims are reluctant to report sex assaults. In one of the cases involving recruiters, for instance, a rape conviction reached through a military court in Alaska resulted in no jail time.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., hopes to address some of these issues with a measure she'll introduce to amend the military code.

Unfortunately, the military is resisting the reforms instead of embracing them. It's one thing to recognize a problem and promise cultural change in an organization as rigid as the military, but it's another entirely to take steps to make it happen.